Musical Trip to be continued

New experiences worth an heavy baggage

The following are words from one of the Italian team members Claudia Gullà who participated in the youth exchange “Musical Trip…” held in Alzedziai, Lithuania from 5th to 14th of July. These words are the perfect image of what an Erasmus+ project means and the huge potential of young people participating in it. As team leader I am very proud of all of them: Mauro Signoretti, Francesca Lacroce, Claudia Gullà and Emanuela Laratta, a great team, made of beautiful people with huge hearts and minds. You can find more information on the project and a slideshow with some pictures at this link

Thank you all!

The project “Musical Trip Through European Cultures” has come to an end. If we want to describe it in a few words, we can say that those have been ten days of exchange and confrontation on the topics of art, music, theatre and dance. However, this definition may not only be too simple but also undercutting.

During the ten days spent in Lithuania, mostly in the school of Alziedziai, we have discussed arts, but we also had a special, unique, opportunity: the opportunity to know a bit of world thanks to the confrontation with people who live in it.

It’s been interesting to discover that Lithuanian food is really tasty, that in Turkey there are a lot of wonderful places, that Slovakia has a great musical tradition, that in Ukraine they have a lot of things besides vodka, that Romania is a beautiful country in which, despite the crisis – and maybe thanks to it – it’s still possible to create art in a deep and touching way. And it’s been even more interesting to discover that, besides the diversities, we are all equal: our cultures are different, that’s true; but those who have taken part to the project had in common the will to get involved, to open themselves to the others without fear, to work together in order to create something great and powerful, to lay the foundations of a world that, thanks to cooperation and exchange, can really become a better place.

The activities in which we’ve been involved were a lot: from the cultural evenings to the workshops of music, theatre and dance; from the excursions on the Baltic sea and to Telziai, to the nights dedicated just to our amusement. The most beautiful thing is that none of those activities has been useless or boring and that everyone participated.

Everyone had a feeling of being part of something great, which could exist only hic et nunc – here and now. We were part of a big performance even before starting to prepare the actual final performance, which has been powerful, exciting and contributed to get our colorful and multicultural group stronger and more united.

Working on the final performance has been an unforgettable experience, which gave us the possibility to understand that each of us is important – for the group and for the entire world –, that we can give so much to people, and that people has so much to offer to us. The final play, which concerned topics and problems that touches us as European citizens but also as human beings, pushed us to think about how we can solve those problems, and made us realize that everything is possible, if we want it. So a piano became a boat, dance became an ode to happiness and life, the theatre became the world and we became free.

Surely those ten days have been intense and tiring, but nobody complained about it: the atmosphere was so beautiful that we felt that, if we had gone to sleep, we would have missed important moments, meaningful talks, new points of view.

This wasn’t simply about learning words in other languages or getting to know the habits of other countries: it was about learning to know the others and ourselves deeply, beyond stereotypes and barriers. The project was important for that reason: because each of us has grown up, has changed somehow.

Now we know better the others and ourselves and we go back to our homes with heavy baggages, made of thousands of experiences, laughs, tears and consciousness. However, once we will unpack our luggages, we will not put all those things in a remote corner of our closet: we will bring them into us, trying to face life in that new, beautiful way made of cooperation, meeting, exchange.

We finally broke the wall, and we made it using love and arts, which are the strongest weapons that we have, and the only ones that we want to use.